Mary H.K. Choi

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind. Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him. When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Fresh out of college, Mary H.K. Choi booked a one-way ticket to New York City and never looked back. Twelve years and countless jobs, dates and a bajillion dollars in rent later, she'd finally had enough. In “Oh, Never Mind,” Choi chronicles her decision to let go of New York by looking back at the hilarious, and often brutal, life lessons the city taught her -- about love, money, friendship and, above all, herself. From buying a criminally expensive Rick Owens coat to quitting bulimia to accidentally dating a guy who works at the airport, these profoundly funny essays capture a young woman’s struggles coming of age in a city that not only doesn’t sleep; it keeps you up at night. Mary H.K. Choi is a contributor to The New York Times, GQ, Wired, Allure and Billboard. She is the head writer of “Take Part Live,” a daily news show. She is a former editor of MTV Style and executive producer of the documentary “House of Style: Music, Models and MTV.” She’s written comic books for Marvel and Vertigo, and is a founder of Missbehave magazine. Cover design by Kristen Radtke.

Every immigrant kid knows the feeling: the horror and embarrassment of watching your super-foreign parents muddle through social situations when you've long sold them out and assimilated into the New World. The anguish, anger, and guilt sucks! But when you're packed school lunches with fermented things and fish with eyeballs when every other kid gets a bologna sandwich, you wonder if you'll ever really fit in. My Korean Mom is a bittersweet love letter from Mary H. K. Choi to her mother that hopes to convey the frustration, shame, loyalty, and searing adoration that's part and parcel of being the kid of an immigrant. It's not as if she could tell her mother to her face how much she loves her. That's just not how it's done. Mary H. K. Choi has written for GQ, The New York Times, New York, Wired, and Glamour. She is the former editor of MTV Style and executive producer of the documentary House of Style: Music, Models and MTV. She has also written comic books for Marvel and Vertigo and hosts a podcast on jobs called Hey, Cool Job. It's available on iTunes.

Dos hermanas que no se soportan, pero que harán lo que sea por salvarse mutuamente Jayne y June Baek no se parecen en nada. June es la primogénita, una sabelotodo con un demandante trabajo y un departamento igual de frío que ella (según Jayne). Por otro lado, Jayne es un manojo de nervios narcisista con mal gusto para elegir a sus novios y (si le preguntas a June) necesita dejar de gastarse el dinero de sus padres. Antes eran inseparables; ahora no quieren relacionarse para nada. Pero cuando a June le diagnostican cáncer, la única que puede ayudarla es Jayne. Las circunstancias las obligarán a estar juntas otra vez, pero quizá también las confrontarán con ellas mismas. ¿Será más de lo que están dispuestas a soportar? ¿Qué pasará cuando Jayne se dé cuenta de que quizá ella está más dañada que June?

Eles mal se conhecem. São apenas dois jovens trocando mensagens de texto. Mas cada palavra vai mudar suas vidas para sempreEssa é a história de Penny e Sam.Ela tem dezoito anos e acabou de sair de casa rumo à universidade. Longe da mãe expansiva e do namorado sem graça, vai finalmente se dedicar ao sonho de ser escritora. Só não contava que essa nova vida traria também novos obstáculos: pessoas, o maior pesadelo de qualquer introvertido.Ele, por sua vez, está perdido na vida. Em todos os níveis. Aos vinte e um anos, os poucos dólares na conta, a mãe alcoólatra e a ex-namorada complicada não o ajudam a se manter são. Só lhe resta fazer os doces mais mirabolantes para o café onde trabalha (e mora), concluir sua faculdade a distância e tentar (sem muito sucesso) não surtar. Por um acaso do destino — também conhecido como um ataque de pânico no meio da rua —, eles passam a trocar mensagens de texto inofensivas. Mas o que começa como um simples contato de emergência salvo no celular se torna a conexão mais importante da vida deles. Aos poucos, esses jovens introvertidos e problemáticos se tornam dois amigos dividindo angústias, sonhos, piadas e inspirações. Duas pessoas que quase nunca se veem, mas que estão juntas o tempo inteiro. Dois solitários que, finalmente, não estão mais sozinhos.Com perspicácia, humor e grande sensibilidade, a estreante Mary H. K. Choi traça o retrato de uma geração cujos relacionamentos se entrelaçam à evolução tecnológica. Uma história capaz de causar nos leitores o frio na barriga que só as melhores comédias românticas podem proporcionar.

From New York Times bestselling author Mary H.K. Choi comes a funny and emotional story about two estranged sisters switching places and committing insurance fraud to save one of their lives. Jayne Baek is barely getting by. She shuffles through fashion school, saddled with a deadbeat boyfriend, clout-chasing friends, and a wretched eating disorder that she’s not fully ready to confront. But that’s New York City, right? At least she isn’t in Texas anymore, and is finally living in a city that feels right for her. On the other hand, her sister June is dazzlingly rich with a high-flying finance job and a massive apartment. Unlike Jayne, June has never struggled a day in her life. Until she’s diagnosed with uterine cancer. Suddenly, these estranged sisters who have nothing in common are living together. Because sisterly obligations are kind of important when one of you is dying.

After a year of college, Pablo is working at his local twenty-four-hour deli, selling overpriced snacks to brownstone yuppies. He’s dodging calls from the student loan office and he has no idea what his next move is. Leanna Smart’s life so far has been nothing but success. Age eight: Disney Mouseketeer; Age fifteen: first #1 single on the US pop chart; Age seventeen, *tenth* #1 single; and now, at Age nineteen…life is a queasy blur of private planes, weird hotel rooms, and strangers asking for selfies on the street. When Leanna and Pab randomly meet at 4:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn, they both know they can’t be together forever. So, they keep things on the down-low and off Instagram for as long as they can. But it takes about three seconds before the world finds out…

MILK TEETH is a novel about a mother, a daughter, and their brushes with fame in very different generations and contexts.